Persecution of Christians is happening in 144 countries – Your Bible

Recent studies have shown that hostility to religion is increasing worldwide, as the second year in a row gaining momentum different restrictions for Christians from governments of different countries, as well as cases of attacks on Christians, the perpetrators of which remain unpunished.

The ninth annual Pew research center, the results of which were published on 12 July 2018, showed that in 2016 in 198 countries of the world in one form or another took place the persecution of Christians. Regardless enter whether the governments of these countries laws hostile to religion or not, persecutions, committed against religious minorities in these countries is rapidly growing, reports the Week.

More than a quarter (28%) of the listed had “high” or “very high” level of government restrictions on religion in 2016, which is 25% higher than a year earlier, according to the report of the Pew center.

Countries in these categories scored at least 4.5 points on the index of government restrictions (10-point scale, based on 20 indicators of state policy against religious expression, prohibitions to direct physical attacks on religious communities).

South-East Asian country Laos moved into the category of countries with “very high” level of restrictions on religion in 2016 due to the introduction of the new policy, which allows the government to stop any religious activity that it considers a threat to the laws or customs of the country.

According to the survey, 27 percent of countries had “high” or “very high” level of hostilities related to religion. As the index of government restrictions, the index of hostilities, which is used by researchers is determined by a 10-point scale that measures more than a dozen criteria of the fighting, such as sectarian tensions and terrorism associated with religion.

In about 10 percent of the countries where growing religious hostility and restrictions, promoted nationalist views.

“Sixteen percent of the countries noted in the report, organized social groups, who used nationalist rhetoric against religious minorities in the country,” — said the researcher Kataang Kishi.

The most persecuted religious groups from the government or social groups were Christians and Muslims — two major religious trends in the world. In 2016, the Christians are faced with a common social hostility and government restrictions in 144 countries, Muslims in 142 countries.

However, the objectivity of the Pew center data can be questioned, as the researchers argue that “Egypt, Russia, India, Indonesia and Turkey had the highest overall level of religious restrictions among the 25 most densely populated countries on earth.”

“China, which in 2016 is home to approximately 1.38 billion inhabitants, had high levels of government restrictions on religion,” — noted in the study. “India, with a population of 1.32 billion people, has a high level of social hostilities related to religion”, — stated in the report of the Pew center. “In both countries had high levels of restrictions in their respective categories,” the study says.

At the same time, politically engaged American authors, of course, “did not notice” of persecution faced by, for example, the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Ukraine.

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